the-salineras-salt pans2-mckaysavage

The afternoon sun reflecting off the ponds as the cascade down the valley, turning cream into yellows, golds and pinks.

The Salineras salt pans are among the most amazing sights in the Cusco area. Thousands of tiny terraces of white, pink and coffee brown evaporate salty mineral water to produce fine salt.

There are apparently over 3500 individual ponds, all fed from a single mineral spring at the top of the valley, the small flow carefully diverted and weaved between them all. The system has been in operation since the Incan times, but salt has been panned here for many centuries before that.